Irish Wonders: The Ghosts, Giants, Pooka, Demons, Leprechawns, Banshees, Fairies, Witches, Widows, Old Maids, and other Marvels of the Emerald IsleMcAnally, D. R. (David Russell)
General
Irish Wonders: The Ghosts, Giants, Pooka, Demons, Leprechawns, Banshees, Fairies, Witches, Widows, Old Maids, and other Marvels of the Emerald Isle
"Ye see Finn was a mighty smart young felly, if he was a giont, but his
father didn’t give up hope av gettin’ him marr’d, for owld folks that’s
been through a dale o’ throuble that-a-way always thries to get the young
wans into the same thrap, beways, says they, av taichin’ thim to larn
something. But Bryan was a wise owld giont, an’ knewn, as the Bible says,
there’s time enough for all things. So he quit him, an’ that night he
spake wid the owld woman an’ left it wid her, as knowin’ that whin it’s a
matther o’ marryin’, a woman is more knowledgable an’ can do more to bring
on that sort o’ mis’ry in wan day than a man can in all the years God
gives him.
"Now, in ordher that ye see the pint, I’m undher the need-cessity av
axplainin’ to yer Anner that Finn didn’t be no manes have the hathred at
wimmin that he purtinded, for indade he liked thim purty well, but he
thought he undhershtood thim well enough to know that the more ye talk
swate to thim, the more they don’t like it, barrin’ they’re fools, that
sometimes happens. So whin he talked wid ’em or about thim, he spake o’
thim shuperskillious, lettin’ on to despize the lasht wan o’ thim, that
was a takin’ way he had, for wimmin love thimselves a dale betther than
ye’d think, unless yer Anner’s marr’d an’ knows, an’ that Finn knew, so he
always said o’ thim the manest things he cud get out av his head, an’ that
made thim think av him, that was phat he wanted. They purtinded to hate
him for it, but he didn’t mind that, for he knewn it was only talk, an’
there wasn’t wan o’ thim that wouldn’t give the lasht tooth out av her jaw
to have him for a husband.
"Well, as I was sayin’, afther owld Bryan give Finn up, his mother tuk him
in hand, throwin’ a hint at him wanst in a while, sighin’ to him how glad
she’d be to have a young lady giont for a dawther, an’ dhroppin’ a word
about phat an iligant girl Burthey O’Ghallaghy was, that was the dawther
av wan o’ the naburs, that she got Finn, unbeknownst to himself, to be
thinkin’ about Burthey. She was a fine young lady giont, about tin feet
high, as broad as a cassel dure, but she was good size for Finn, as ye
know be phat I said av him. So when Finn’s mother see him takin’ her home
from church afther benediction, an’ the nabers towld her how they obsarved
him lanin’ on O’Ghallaghy’s wall an’ Burthey lightin’ his pipe wid a coal,
she thought to herself, ’fair an’ aisey goes far in a day,’ an’ made her
mind up that Finn ’ud marry Burthey. An’ so, belike, he’d a’ done, if he
hadn’t gone over, wan onlucky day, to the village beyant, where the common
people like you an’ me lived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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